[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 130 (Friday, July 6, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35659-35660]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-16658]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement Evaluating 
the Environmental Effects of Providing Fish Passage Through the 
Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery and Providing Riverine Habitat 
Within the Hatchery Grounds

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior (Lead Agency); Forest 
Service, Agriculture (Cooperating Agency).

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: When the Bureau of Reclamation (Interior) built the 
Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery along the west bank of the Icicle 
Creek, a tributary to the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers, in 1939, it 
modified the original Icicle Creek channel into a series of adult 
salmon and steelhead holding and juvenile rearing ponds. The main flow 
of Icicle Creek was diverted into a dammed manmade canal. Fish passage 
to creek areas above the hatchery was deliberately blocked. Holding and 
rearing fish in the modified channel worked poorly and was abandoned in 
1979 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) built a 
conventional fish ladder and two holding ponds immediately downstream 
of the dam at the tail end of the manmade canal. Use of the ponds in 
the original creek bed was abandoned.
    The Service, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, has 
completed the preparation of a draft Environmental Impact Statement 
addressing the potential effects on the human environment that may 
result from removing the obstacles in Icicle Creek to provide fish 
passage to areas above the hatchery and to provide riverine habitat 
within the hatchery grounds.
    The draft Environmental Impact Statement is available for public 
review and comment. All comments received, including names and 
addresses, will become part of the administrative record and may be 
made available to the public.

DATES: The comment period will end on August 20, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Ms. Corky Broaddus, 
Supervisory Information and Education Specialist, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Complex, 12790 
Hatchery Road, Leavenworth, Washington 98826. Written comments may also 
be sent via facsimile to (509) 548-6263.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Greg Pratschner, Project Leader, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery 
Complex, Leavenworth, Washington 98826, at (509)548-7641.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Document Availability

    Copies of the draft Environmental Impact Statement are available 
for review at the following government offices and libraries:
    Government Offices: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Leavenworth 
National Fish Hatchery, 12790 Hatchery Road, Leavenworth, Washington 
98826, (509) 548-7641; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mid-Columbia 
River Fisheries Resource Office, 12790 Hatchery Road, Leavenworth, 
Washington 98826, (509) 548-7573; U.S. Forest Service, Leavenworth 
Ranger District, 600 Sherbourne, Leavenworth, Washington 98826, (509) 
548-6977; U.S. Forest Service, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, 
Supervisor's Office, 215 Melody Lane, Wenatchee, Washington 98801, 
(509) 662-4335.
    Libraries: Leavenworth Public Library, 700 Highway 2, Leavenworth, 
Washington 98826, (509) 548-7923; Wenatchee Public Library, 310 
Douglas, Wenatchee, Washington 98801, (509) 662-5021; East Wenatchee 
Public Library, 271 Ninth Street Northeast, East Wenatchee, Washington 
98802, (509) 886-7404; Cashmere Public Library, 101 Woodring, Cashmere, 
Washington 98815, (509) 782-3314.

Background

    Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, the Service 
prepared a draft Environmental Impact Statement evaluating the 
consequences of a proposed action to remove instream structures in 
Icicle Creek, a tributary of the Wenatchee River, near Leavenworth, 
Washington. When the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery (Hatchery) was 
built in 1939, the original Icicle Creek channel was modified into a 
series of salmon and steelhead holding ponds with the instream 
placement of weirs, dams, and a headgate which controlled flow through 
the ponds. Fish passage to areas above the Hatchery was deliberately 
blocked. Flow in Icicle Creek was diverted downstream via a manmade 
canal bounded on the downstream end by a velocity barrier dam and 
spillway. The use of the instream ponds to hold returning salmon and 
steelhead was abandoned in 1979 due to recurrent water temperature

[[Page 35660]]

and water quality problems. Instead, the Hatchery constructed a 
conventional fish ladder and holding ponds adjacent to the spillway 
dam. The ladder and holding ponds are currently in use.
    On March 10, 1999, the Service published in the Federal Register a 
Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The 
stated Purpose and Need was: to provide long term, year-round, 
sustainable passage of native fish to habitat above the Leavenworth 
National Fish Hatchery; to provide riverine fish habitat through the 
Hatchery grounds.
    The Service invites the public to comment on the draft 
Environmental Impact Statement. All comments received will become part 
of the public record and may be released. The public will have 45 days 
to review and comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement. This 
notice is provided pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969 (40 CFR 1506.6).

    Date: June 27, 2001.
Rowan W. Gould,
Acting Regional Director, Region 1, Portland, Oregon.
[FR Doc. 01-16658 Filed 7-5-01; 8:45 am]
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